


The Nightmare Club

by Windona



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Sleepovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-15
Updated: 2017-04-15
Packaged: 2018-10-19 06:03:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10633776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Windona/pseuds/Windona
Summary: The invasion is over, but scars don't heal overnight.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this four years ago on Tumblr, but I felt like putting some of my better fics somewhere easier to access.

It began the first night Tye and Asami slept in Ms Longshadow’s house in El Paso. They had separate rooms the first night, but their rooms were next to each other, and they slept on opposite sides of the same wall. Asami woke to hear Tye having nightmares, and she walked into his room, shook him awake softly, got him a glass of water and held his hand and talked to him until they both fell asleep, calmed in each others presences.

After several nights of seeing Asami and Tye innocently cuddling next to each other after a night of nightmares, Ms Longshadow suggested that they moved into a room together.

Barely had the words left her lips before they moved the handful of items Asami had into Tye’s room, and they fell back into the routine of warding off each others nightmares with their mutual presence at night, being ready to squeeze and talk to and wake up and comfort the other should a stray bad dream come.

In another house in El Paso, a little girl was worried. She had been so, so happy when her brother was himself again, and he smiled and hugged her and played with her and was just _there_. But the night he came back was also the night he started suffering in his dreams. The first few nights he screamed so loud he woke momma and poppa and she woke up, and they all went into his room and woke him up and gave him water and stroked his sweaty back, telling him it was all over. He screamed less loudly after the bad guys went away, and in a few weeks he wouldn’t wake momma and poppa. When he came down for breakfast, he gave a convincing smile, and passed off any tiredness as getting back into the motions of being on the team himself, and helping rebuild.

But Milagro knew that he still had nightmares. They had rooms next to each other, and she heard his whimpers. When she went into his room, she saw his suit try to calm him down. She always ended up plodding on his carpeted floor, teddy bear in hand, put a hand on his shoulder and said, “I had a nightmare. Can I sleep next to you tonight?”

He would give a nod, and although they both knew who really had the nightmares and who really needed comforting, neither said anything in the night, and neither said anything as Milagro woke up before she had to in order to go into her room and pretend to be asleep, to get up and tease her brother as much as she teased him and go to do summer activities at her school and everyone pretend to be fine as her parents worried about how tired their son was and not having an idea of what to do, as Jaime pretended not to  have demons that chased him at night, and as the world turned on.

It was a different house at night than in the day, after all.

The solution came to Milagro as her brother’s friend came to her house. He had been missing for longer than her brother, although not in the same way. She smiled at him, and said, “Are you inviting Jaime to a sleep over?”

His brows cringed, but then he looked at Milagro’s worried look and big, hopeful eyes, and he smiled. “If it’s okay with his parents and my mom, yeah.”

As Jaime came down the stairs, he looked at Tye and Milagro and frowned. “What’s going on?” he asked.

“You’re sleeping over Tye’s house tonight,” Milagro said in the most bossiest way possible that left no room for ifs, ands, or buts.

He shrugged, smiled, and said, “That’d be great. I’ll be over at seven, okay?”

Milagro smiled. Even if it didn’t help Jaime as much as she hoped, she could have one night of not seeing her brother broken, and that was enough for her.

***

When Jaime’s nightmares about being taken over, controlled, and forced to kill started up again, he felt an immediate tug on his arm, and hug, and a leg going across his. The touches pulled his nightmares back, and reminded him of the intimacy that the Reach had forbidden him from having, prevented him from having with his friends and family.

When those next to him began to tense, he automatically tugged gently on their arms or hair. His arms wrapped around a trembling body, a reaction ingrained in him from years of comforting his sister and friends.

Despite all the near misses, all three of them had a full, and relatively restful night of sleep, not once waking up.

***

Jaime began sleeping over at Tye’s more, at least once or twice a week and often more. Milagro didn’t mind; he seemed better rested, his smiles less tired, and there were nights she didn’t hear a whimper from him.

Her brother was getting better.

So one night, when Jaime was at Tye’s, and Bart arrived in the middle of the night and walked into Jaime’s room, Milagro got up to meet him.

“Oh, hey there Milagro. Uh… do you know where Jaime is?” he asked, nervously and sweating.

She gave a small smile. “He’s at Tye’s house, having a sleepover. You should join them.”

Bart nodded his thanks, and went over. He joined in the tangle of bodies, and let the company of others wash away his chills at the sight of seeing Wally fade away in front of his eyes.

***

Right as he got out of the zeta tube, Virgil hopped on his metal disk and zipped down the memorized streets. He floated up to a window he knew well, and did the knock he has developed when on the run months ago.

He saw Tye sit up in bed, and the other kids warily look up from their barely entered slumber.

Virgil held his wrists, fidgeting and giving a nervous smile. “Uh, hey, I figured I’d just randomly stop by and see how you’re doing, it’s been a while and-”

“Lie down and sleep,” Asami said, motioning to a spare bit of space on the mass of mattresses and blankets that covered the floor on the nights when people came over.

Virgil’s shoulders sank as he sighed in relief. “Thanks guys,” he said, as he crawled in, folded his disk, and lay in the way he did when he was on the run with others and sleeping in whatever place they could find.

***

Ed sat straight up in his bed. It took him a few seconds to look around his room and realize that he was not _on the Reach ship, in a pod, the pain the paintheshocksandpainandohgodhe'sgoingtobenext_. He grabbed at his cell phone next to his bed, and began texting the people who had been his second family after going through the trauma.

His phone beeped, and he saw it was a text from Virgil. [Hold tight, I’ll pick you up] was written in harsh black on a blinding white screen. Ed scrunched his eyes to read it, and before his sleepy, nightmare shot mind processed what it said, there was a knock on his window.

Ed scribbled a note and put it next to his bed for when his father would get home, and teleported onto Virgil’s disk. Within an hour, he was one of a mass of bodies sprawled on Tye and Asami’s floor, next to the people who kept him anchored to the land of now.

***

Black Canary walked up to Kaldur. “Is there anything special to report about the team?” she asked.

Kaldur shook his head. “You know about every mission we have been on.”

Black Canary shook her head. “Not about the missions; about how the team itself is doing. Training wise, health wise, stress wise, mentally…”

Kaldur gave a soft smile. “Still looking out for us. Now that you ask, I have noticed that some of our members who have been through a lot of trauma have been greatly improving recently. Virgil, Jaime and Bart seem better rested and relaxed.”

“That’s good to hear.” Black Canary looked over at the screen displaying information. “Do you know why Virgil’s been going to and from Taos with an unregistered guest?”

Kaldur frowned. “It seems that the guest is Eduardo; his data is still on file from when he helped with the Reach invasion. However, it would most likely be best to ask him.”

***

“Virgil, may I speak to you?” Kaldur asked.

Virgil shrugged, and walked over. “Sure. What’s up, Aqualad?”

“It is about your trips to and from Taos over the zeta beam. While that is allowed, I am curious as to why.”

Virgil looked down to the side. “it’s, uh, kind of silly…”

“If it is important to you, it is not silly. Feel free to tell me.”

“Well, um-” Virgil put a hand behind his head. “I’ve been having bad dreams, you know, from everything that happened, and when I do, I go over to Tye’s for a sleep over. Ed’s been having them to, so he joins us, and I pick him up.”

Kaldur smiled. “That is an admirable thing to do. If you need more space for your sleep overs, the new base over where Mount Justice used to stand will primarily be a home for several team members, and will have enough space to have a group of sleeping teenagers. I will see about getting Ed, Tye, and Asami authorized guest designations so you do not have to pick anyone up any more.”

Virgil’s eyes widened. “Really? You would do that?”

“I understand how important being with someone who shares your experiences can be. I would not deny any member of my team that; in fact, I hope some more members of the team would join you.”

Virgil smiled. “Thanks Kaldur, I’ll be sure to tell them!”

***

Soon the building was finished. It had a large basement that tapped into whatever structure of Mount Justice was left, and improved upon it. The members of the team who had been living in the warehouse moved in. Soon afterwards, a large room had its floor covered in mattresses, and became the host to a large group of teenagers every so often.

The informal rules were simple; everyone was allowed in, you didn’t have to talk about your nightmares if you did not want to, and feel free to do what you needed to do to feel safe.

This meant that Bart often grabbed people at night to feel for solidness while Tye listened for the sound of breathing. Asami would cuddle, and put her head to someone’s heart. Some just needed to know there were people in the room, and others ended up at the center of the pile of sleeping bodies in order to feel safe.

When Ed came with Arsenal in tow one night, nobody questioned it. When Robin came in with a horrified look, most likely after a particularly disturbing case, someone make a motion for him to lie down on an empty piece of mattress/blanket mush. While Jason’s revival was a surprise, him coming in and needing to feel air and love was not an unreasonable thing, and he found a spot between bodies. Artemis was met with open hands and hearts, letting her experience a warm bed once more.

Some nights, they didn’t need each other, and didn’t need to tangle fingers in the hair of another or hear a deep breath or need someone to hog the blanket and put an arm over them. Sometimes only one person needed it, and coming to the room called someone up so they could sleep with someone.

But it didn’t take Gar’s painted sign saying ‘The Nightmare Club’ to know that no matter what, everyone would have a place to stay when the demons of the night came to haunt them.


End file.
